With its cardboard-looking sets and live studio audienceÂ guffaws, Hot in Cleveland may look and sound like a throwback to a 1980s sitcom, but this week's second episode took it to 2010's standards of low comedy.

It all started out with affable sarcasm, as Jane Leeves Joy asked Betty White's Elka, Was Ohio even a state when you were born?Â and White, with her impeccable timing, snapped, They were talking about it.Â

It's still fun to live in the cheerfully ludicrous contemporary Cleveland universe Hot has created, where Elka the 88 year-old caretakerÂ prepares breakfast for a woman half her age (that would be Valerie Bertinelli's Melanie) and her two snippy pals (Joy and Wendie Malick's Victoria). The whole sitting-around-the-kitchen-table staging was very Golden Girls-y.

Joy went on a date with a much younger man, not without some worry about her outfit. Not too cougary?Â she asked her friends, describing herself as a self-hating cougar.Â Elka went to her fall-back insult: Hooker,Â she deemed Joy in her teeny dress.

Comments

Betty White has the best timing and never fails to bring a laugh. She is perfect for this role. I didn't think I would like this show, but was pleasantly drawn into it and was left wanting more. Love it!

Want to comment on this post? First, you must log in
to your SideReel account!